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Recommended Reading: The role of hip-hop in 'Luke Cage'

The best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web.<p><b>The Unexpected Hip-Hop<br>Crossover in New Netflix<br>Series 'Luke Cage'</b><br>Adelle Platon,<br>Billboard<p>Based on the trailers Netflix released ahead of this week's <i>Luke Cage</i> debut, you might've guessed that hip-hop plays a big role in the new …

EV concepts merge with reality at the Paris Auto Show

VW and Mercedes have ideas, but Chevy, Tesla and Renault are ready to sell.<p>I might have been imagining things, but automakers seemed a bit nervous at this year's Paris Auto Show. Maybe it's because it's first the first major car event to follow Tesla's successful Model 3 campaign, in which it …

Six wheels that give cars (and bikes) superpowers

Omnidirectional tires could make parallel parking a breeze.<p><i>By Cat DiStasio</i><p>For a long time, business experts said, "Don't try to reinvent the wheel." Now, that's the primary objective for many engineers looking to create the vehicles of the future. And just when it seems that there are no further …

ICYMI: Harnessing mother nature's fury for energy

An engineer made a wind turbine that can be used in the worst storms.<p>Today on In Case You Missed It: A Japanese engineer created a wind turbine that can harness energy from both typhoons and hurricanes, watch the video of it here. Meanwhile, researchers at Northwestern University developed a 3D …

ICYMI: Harnessing mother nature’s fury for energy

Facebook gives select Pages the power to tag their products

Clicking on a tag takes you to a dedicated product page.<p>Someday, you might see products tagged in Facebook images and videos the same way people are today. Facebook has begun testing an experimental feature that allows businesses running Pages to tag their products, according to <i>Business Insider</i>. …

Apple loses FaceTime patent retrial, ordered to pay $302.4 million

It's the third time Apple has faced off against VirnetX over patents covering secure communications.<p>In the continuing saga of Apple vs. VirnetX, <i>Reuters</i> reports that a federal jury in the Eastern District of Texas has ruled in favor of VirnetX, ordering Apple to pay $302.4 million in damages. This …

Yahoo open-sources machine learning porn filter

It isn't perfect, but that's where you come in.<p>Yahoo is the latest tech company to open source its computer vision code. The beleaguered outfit's application for it? Filtering porn. Yahoo hopes that its convolutional neural net (CNN) will empower others to better guard innocent eyes, but admits …

The first Chevy Bolt EV you see might be your Lyft ride

Their drivers will get the first batch alongside advance buyers.<p>Shortly before General Motors scooped up the pieces of failed Uber competitor Sidecar back in January, they invested $500 million in Lyft for a partnership to create a self-driving vehicle network. In August, news broke that the car …

Google's VR paint game 'Tilt Brush' will get multiplayer

Paint with your friends! Paint ON your friends!<p>Google's Tilt Brush debuted in September 2014 as a virtual reality painting experience -- immersion with the creative simplicity of MS Paint, as <i>The Verge</i> put it. They've added more in-game tools and hosted the odd art exhibit in the two-year interim. …

Google Maps will show where your next Calendar appointment is

It's only available on Android for now, though.<p>Google has been all about change for its suite of productivity apps this week, and now we're seeing what happens when some of the disparate services combine. On Android, Maps and Calendar are joining forces to give a quick visual reference for where …

Twitch rolls out video uploads, clip editing on iOS and Android

The livestreaming platform is also delivering HTML5 streaming for all and more video quality options.<p>While Amazon-linked Prime features are the big news out of TwitchCon, the livestreaming service is bringing some long-promised new features to users. Starting today, users can upload videos directly …

GLM unveils its exotic electric G4 concept car

The so-called "Tesla of Japan" aims to rival the Model S.<p>Green Lord Motors, better known as GLM, has been called the Tesla of Japan on more than one occasion. Founded in 2010, GLM has quietly been producing its own electric vehicle platform paired with a third-party body much in the same way Tesla …

Twitch announces ad-free streaming for Amazon Prime members

You might find Hearthstone gold in your two-day deliveries.<p>Today at Twitch Con 2016 in San Diego, Amazon and the world's biggest livestreaming platform announced a new perk of their deepening relationship. It's called Twitch Prime and starting today Amazon Prime members get ad-free viewing on …

BMW teases an all-electric future with Mini and X3

Can the German automaker stave off Tesla? We'll soon find out.<p>BMW's outline to reinvent itself as an automaker of the future has a new wrinkle to it. The company plans to sell electric versions of the X3 SUV as well as an EV Mini, according to <i>Reuters</i>. There isn't a timeline for the former, but the …

The Pax Era aims to be the Keurig of vaporizers

Get your pot in a pod!<p>Out of all the ways to ingest THC, oil concentrates are far and away the messiest, stickiest and most irritating method. Unlike shatter, crumble or even wax, all of which maintain their shape and texture to some degree, oils have a knack for getting <i>everywhere</i>. It's especially …

Rosetta probe's love affair with a comet ended predictably

It crashed into the space rock and stopped reporting back to base.<p>Goodbye, Rosetta. After 12 years of getting up close and personal with Comet 67P, your service has come to an end. At approximately 7:19 am Eastern the spacecraft descended upon the comet one last time, snapping pictures and …

US regulators warn customers about exploding Samsung washers

Owners of the top-loading appliances say the machines exploded while they were doing laundry.<p>Just days after Samsung began replacing defective Galaxy Note 7s due to a risk of exploding batteries, the company faces another major product issue. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued …

We were stealing music way before the internet and millennials

Columbia House, we have wronged you.<p>When I was 13, my babysitter showed up with a box of 12 new cassettes. I was amazed that she had been able to afford all this music. I grew up poor and even one new purchase was news; a dozen purchases was cause for celebration. Had she robbed a bank? Found a wad …

'FIFA 17' marks a new beginning for the soccer franchise

EA's 'Frostbite' engine makes the game look and perform better than ever.<p>I've been playing <i>FIFA</i> since its first title launched on Super Nintendo, when characters on the screen looked like nothing more than colorful stick figures. Nowadays, thanks to the power of modern gaming consoles, the visuals …

BlackBerry is done making smartphones

But the brand will still be attached to handsets.<p>In BlackBerry's latest quarterly financials released today, the company revealed it's getting out of the hardware business once and for all, choosing instead to "outsource that function to partners." It's not a huge shock given BlackBerry CEO John …

Your health insurance might score you an Apple Watch

Insurer Aetna will subsidize a "significant portion" of its cost.<p>Apple will exclusively provide its Watch, iPad and iPhone products to Aetna for new app-oriented fitness tracking program, the US insurance giant announced. A cornerstone of the project is health tracking, so Aetna will subsidize the …

Microsoft's Edge browser stays secure by acting as a virtual PC

"Application Guard" locks Edge away from the Windows 10 processes.<p>Microsoft has unveiled Windows Defender Application Guard for Microsoft Edge, a new system that will isolate the browser on Windows 10 Enterprise PCs, making them harder to hack. In a blog, the company wrote that it's "the first …

Xiaomi's Mi 5s hides a fingerprint reader under its glass

There's also a larger Mi 5s Plus with a dual-lens camera.<p>We were already big fans of Xiaomi's Mi 5 flagship smartphone, so it's only natural for the Chinese company to build on this model's success by bringing us the Mi 5s. It should be no surprise that this dual-SIM device -- which has ditched the …

How to watch tonight's US presidential debate

There's no shortage of online viewing options as Clinton and Trump square off.<p>So you're determined to watch the first of 2016's US presidential debates, but you don't subscribe to TV... or you live in a country that won't have a live broadcast. What to do? Relax. This year, there are more choices …

PlayStation 4 Slim review: Wait for the PS4 Pro if you can

With a more powerful PS4 arriving soon, you're better off upgrading to that instead.<p>After selling over 40 million consoles, Sony is refreshing the PlayStation 4. That starts with the PlayStation 4 Slim, available now for $299, along with the PlayStation VR headset (out next month) and the …

Roku's new players start at $30, make 4K and HDR more affordable

It's cheaper than ever to bring streaming video to all your TVs.<p>You'd think that there would be no surprises left for Roku's next batch of streaming media players, following a bunch of leaks which revealed plenty of details and some very clear photos. But that's not entirely true, chiefly because …

What to expect to see from Google's October 4th event

Hello Pixel, goodbye Nexus.<p>It's that time of the year when tech companies trout out their newest wares hoping to cash in on the holiday season buying spree and Google is no different. On October 4th the search giant is holding an event to show off, well something, but most likely some new phones. …

The more you play 'Hello Neighbor,' the smarter its villain gets

The Neighbor gets better and better at catching you.<p>In an upcoming horror PC game called <i>Hello Neighbor</i>, you play a character with voyeuristic tendencies. You're obsessed with sneaking into your suspicious next-door neighbor's house to see what secrets he's hiding in his basement, sort of like Tom …

Fuze is the first iPhone 7 headphone jack case you can preorder

And it'll recharge your iPhone too.<p>It was only a matter of time until iPhone 7 accessory makers started delivering a slew of cases to bring back the 3.5mm headphone jack. But I didn't expect the first case that you could actually preorder -- Fuze -- would come from a tiny Austin outfit's Indiegogo …